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catholicherald.org March 28, 2019
BODY of CHRIST
MY FAITH MINI-PROFILE
p Don and Mary Aleckson have eight children and 12 grandchildren. (Submitted photo)
Mary Aleckson
St. Patrick Parish, Whitewater
St. Patrick parishioner Mary Aleckson believes that her Catholic faith rests on the support of the "holy people" she is blessed to have in her life - including her husband, Don, and her fellow daily Mass attendees. A mother of eight and grandmother of 12, she and husband Don celebrated their 50th anniversary last September. She was born in western Wisconsin and has lived in Whitewater for more than 40 years. She helped to start St. Patrick's weekly Eucharistic Adoration, serves as a cat- echist, works in the pro-life movement and brings the Eucharist to residents at a local senior facility.
COLLEEN JURKIEWICZ CATHOLIC HERALD STAFF
How is your 50th anniversary year treating you and Don? Its been great. We were busy at the beginning of our marriage; our rst son was born 10 or 11 months after we were married. But now, we have time together. I said to Don, Thats Gods payment for being busy in the beginning. I have a friend who has 10 children, and I told her, When you get to be my age, youll get time together. Its almost like being young and having no children again - but for sure, were wiser than when we were younger. If you just sit back, you can tell its Gods timing. When did you start the Eucharistic adoration program at your parish? It was in April 2002, and I started it with my friend Marguerite and my friend Jim, who was a judge and helped us ll time slots that didn't have anyone to cover them. Fr. Je Haines - now Bishop Haines - was at our parish for a short time, and he knew I wanted to start this and said, Well, why dont we start it? So we did. I am forever grateful to Fr. Je, who would also ll in time slots that didnt have anyone to cover them. Every once in a while, you get discouraged and think, why am I doing this? Especially if it's hard to ll the schedule or if the weather is bad - many of my people are over 80 and I cant ask them to come out when its 10 below zero. But God always provides and has recently sent me several new holy ones. He tells me all the time: Oh you of little faith. You told me your career was motherhood, and you're the proud mom of eight now-grown kids. We have seven boys and one girl and we now have 11 granddaughters and one grandson. God has a sense of humor. Theyre all gorgeous - theyre the most beautiful grandchildren. I remember when I was pregnant the seventh time and the doctor said, Do you know what the chances of having seven children the same sex in a row are? I said, No, but I bet I can do it. But the seventh time God said, Here is your daughter. How did you grow from the challenges of having a larger family? It can be really challenging when youre going through it. You see other people having all these luxuries in life, and you do sometimes feel covetous of that. But those luxuries are so eeting. Our kids would always do newspaper routes. Living in Whitewater, we had a lot of students as customers and when spring break came, the students and lots of faculty would all be gone on vacation - where Don is in farm seed sales. During spring break, he was really busy, so there was no time o and we still delivered papers to those, who like us, were still in town. That was probably one of the things that sticks in your craw at the time, but the kids learned sacrice and my goodness, they're all doing so well now. How long have you been involved in the pro-life movement? Weve been members of Wisconsin Right to Life since 1976. I always was opposed to abortion, but I do remember when (Roe v. Wade was decided), I was pregnant. My sons birthday is March 4 and this was Jan. 22. I remember I thought, My God, are they saying I can kill this baby? Abortion is a horrible, horrible thing, but I think it helped Don and me draw closer because in ghting against it, we had a common enemy. We participate in dierent pro-life events, attending state and national conventions, state and local meetings as well as working at Right to Life fair booths. Through working or attending Right to Life events, we have met some of the nest, most unselsh folks of all faiths youll ever meet. The evil of abortion causes me to pray more because only God can change hearts and heal victims of abortion.
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